The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Atlanta Falcons on the road Sunday afternoon in their twelfth game of the 2022 regular season and if you’re like me, you’re counting down the hours until the game begins. As usual, I will attempt to project the Steelers inactives for every game of the 2022 season and below is my best guess as to which players won’t be given helmets Sunday afternoon at Mercedes-Benz Stadium against the Falcons.
Game inactives are officially announced 90 minutes before kickoff, so make sure you check back at that time to see the names of the players for both teams who will be sitting the game out. Also, the new roster rules make this exercise even harder as team’s can elevate up to two players from their practice squads to their active roster for gamedays. Team’s also can dress up to 48 players for games if eight offensive linemen are dressed.
QB Mason Rudolph – It’s now been eleven consecutive games that Rudolph hasn’t dressed for this season as part of him being the third-string quarterback on the Steelers’ depth chart. He’ll be inactive once again on Sunday afternoon against the Falcons with him still buried behind quarterbacks Kenny Pickett and Mitchell Trubisky on the depth chart. Barring injuries to Pickett or Trubisky, Rudolph should remain the third-string quarterback so there’s a very good chance he’ll be inactive for the remainder of the team’s games.
G Kendrick Green – Like Rudolph, the Steelers have yet to have Green active for a game this season. The team has dressed eight of their nine total offensive linemen in their first eleven games of the 2022 regular season and Green has been the odd one out in that position group for all those contests. The Steelers have Jesse Davis and J.C. Hassenauer as interior offensive linemen backups and they have been ahead of Green on the depth chart all season. Green was the team’s third-round draft pick last year, so he’s really considered a huge miss by the team at this point.
CB Josh Jackson – Jackson is finding it hard to get a gameday helmet these last several weeks and thus it certainly looks like that could be the case once again against the Falcons on Sunday afternoon. The Steelers have been choosing to dress an extra defensive lineman the last few games and that figures to continue on Sunday. The Steelers need five inactive players this week and it sure seems like Jackson will be one of them.
ILB Mark Robinson – The Steelers should have inside linebacker Robert Spillane back this week and that will likely result in Robinson going back to the inactive list. Robinson has only dressed for two games this season and he only played on special teams in one of those contests. He did not see the field at all in Week 12. Unless outside linebacker Malik Reed is unable to play because of his back injury, Robinson should be inactive. Reed was added to the Steelers injury report on Saturday as questionable.
DE Isaiahh Loudermilk – The Steelers activated rookie defensive end DeMarvin Leal from the Reserve/Injured list on Saturday and with that, it’s not hard to imagine him dressing and playing on Sunday against the Falcons. The readdition of Leal now means the Steelers have seven defensive linemen on their 53-man roster. They are only likely to dress six defensive linemen on Sunday and if Leal is one of the six, Loudermilk might be the odd man out. Loudermilk was an inactive player early in the season and for the first five games at that.
